Return to Imaginationland
by Ashura5000
Summary: The world is broken and slowly it shall suffer and fall into despair, such is the desire of the new Dark Lord, but he didn't count on Kenny, Butters and Red who return to Imaginationland to save there friends and eventually the world. R/R.


Disclaimer- I don't own South Park.

**

* * *

**

Return to Imaginationland

Chapter 1:

It all started, as such epic's do, with good and evil in an epic battle to the death.

Everything that had ever been concocted in the minds of mortals were fighting on the side of either good or evil. There was no grey area, there was no ambiguous anti-heroes and there was only going to be one clear winner at the end of it.

The good characters had been driven back to Castle Sunshine by the darkness that had been freed by terrorists attempting to make imagination itself run wild, now the villains that had fought the heroes and most of them lost during the movies and games, as one collective force they were vicious, evil, and like a hurricane of death and destruction.

The light had one hope.

The Key, a Creator, a little boy known as Butters Stotch who used his imagination to give the heroes the edge in the battle, driving back the big bad villains with ease thanks to reincarnation and weapons.

Then the world had been lit on fire by the fires of a spontaneous nuke from the real world and, with what may as well have been a click of his fingers, Imaginationland was restored by the boy and peace was restored to the realm.

The Key returned home, after observing a peculiar sight in which one of his friends imagined his other friend sucking his balls, and was content to live through his days in the realm of mortality instead of spending his time in the immortal realm of his imagination where he was a God.

He was the smart one.

Our story begins a few months after that adventure...

* * *

In the realm of his dreams, Kenny McCormick was a player.

Gorgeous women surrounded him giggling and playing in the ocean, in the sand, dancing around him seductively, approaching him and whispering sweet nothings and then doing the most wonderful things.

It was all so wonderful and it was what he wanted, every night, as he slept because he fancied himself to be quite a normal young man.

Sure, he had morals, he had a desire to do good and fight for justice under the alias of Mysterion and protect the city as an angel, but that didn't stop him from turning his head every time he leapt from building to building and spotted a woman getting undressed.

Unlike Eric Cartman, there was no ambiguity with Kenny's preferences, and he normally let his mind dart around and roll with ecstasy- except, tonight, there was nothing of the sort.

He wandered his dream world, a boy in an orange parka (his comfort zone, even in his mind, it seemed), calling the names of his favourite Victoria secrets models, playboy bunnies, porn stars- and yet none of them rushed to his side with a bowl of ice-cream and a new game to play.

His dream was instead dark and shadowy and he walked through it, an colourful yellow aura dancing off his body, like sparks which cut through the darkness and burned a path ahead of him. Shadows stood and danced around him, taunting him in the places where his models perhaps would stand- but they never attacked him.

Fearing them was also the last thing on his mind, for as they stood and danced, he waited and sighed heavily, almost bored now. He tried to create something different, a lap dancing club, a bikini model contest, even a race track for him to drive a car around, but the shadows didn't change.

It was as though they were an infestation.

He wondered at that point if maybe he wasn't focusing enough inside his dream but, true to form, the realisation that he was dreaming snapped him awake and his eyes shot open and he was staring at the cold darkness of his ceiling.

Shadows danced around his walls, this time from the real world, but Kenny paid them no heed and with a slight grunt of frustration rolled over and fell back into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

When the sun rose the next day, it wasn't a beautiful red and orange but a pale yellow as though it was burning at half strength. As though it didn't care.

The sky which normally would be blue was grey and the clouds themselves were black and moving slowly through the air as though they would rain, but simply couldn't be bothered.

When lights were turned on they flickered, flashed briefly, and then burned out completely leaving only the dull burn of candlelights.

Sport events were cancelled, with nobody caring, even the die hard fans.

Internet forums were silent, nobody finding any new arguments on the biggest forums, for there was just no point anymore.

The world was in a state of peace, with countries leaders not bothering to show up for work, and everybody else lacking the inspiration to rise up and rebel.

Cars stopped in the middle of the street, because the petrol couldn't be bothered to burn.

Phones working, because there was no point in talking to others.

The ocean itself stopped making waves and the wind didn't blow.

Television was repetitive and uninspired, with re-ruins and the news dominating the day, whilst movie theatres didn't bother opening and online video-games were simply turned off, with the realms of Warcraft and the City of Heroes and Villains left to sit, completely empty, as real people instead retired to there bed and tried to sleep- but there dreams were just as bland and hurt just as much, to the point where even sleeping brought about depression.

Planet Earth was smothering itself in self-pity, with everybody lacking the inspiration to figure out why and to fix it- and those who could, didn't yet realise something was wrong.

But whilst the it seemed like the heavens and the earth were grey, hope shone.

And hope wore an orange hood.

* * *

Kenny waited at the bus stop, yawning slightly, and glancing around for his friends.

They hadn't arrived yet and the bus was due to arrive at any minute, so where had they gone?

Sure, Cartman may ditch, but Kyle and Stan never would. Heck, they'd run through a blizzard if school was open, because despite everything they did care about the future.

In fact, Kenny thought (noticing briefly that the snow didn't seem as thick today, it seemed weak and slushy, despite its freshness), he hadn't seen Cartman for a few days. On Friday he hadn't shown up but had been online and over the weekend he'd been missing.

His last status update had been a picture of the Leprechaun they had captured during that whole Imaginationland fiasco, with the words; "Why, where and how?" captioned underneath it.

He put it to one side and waited, alone, with only his thoughts to accompany him, not realising that the wind wasn't moving and the tree's were completely still.

It was like some kind of badly animated cartoon.

But soon enough, the bus appeared with a silent hiss as it stopped and, getting on board, he glanced around. The driver glanced forward and didn't greet him, the other kids just sat in silence and stared out the window and those who did glance his way only knew him from class and made no effort to say hello.

Stan and Kyle weren't on board, neither was Eric, throwing out the idea that they had got on at a different stop.

Ah well.

He saw Butters by himself, sitting at the back, and suddenly realised that the boy was glancing his head around slightly more twitchy. He was looking out the window, at the people who were walking to work, or at the sky were the birds glided, and then he'd stare at the other school-kids who still sat in silence.

Kenny sighed loudly and went to take his seat, away from Butters, and sat back. Another boring day, it seemed.

He didn't notice, as the bus drove, the birds that were falling from the sky that gave up on flying and the people who collapsed in the street, lacking the inspiration to go to work or even walk, in fact the only time he got the feeling that something was amiss was when they finally did arrive at the school and the bus driver didn't open the door.

Nobody questioned him, nobody bothered him, except Butters who shouted; "Excuse me? I have to get to school, sir, or my parents will ground me for getting a tardy!"

The driver muttered something and then pulled the lever, both him and the lever making a grunt of dismay as the doors opened with a loud squeak and the kids piled off. The doors were open, which was a plus, but some of the lights were not on and most of the kids just stood or lay on the ground in silence.

In the road, cars had stopped, with nobody bothering to figure out what was going on.

Kenny ignored it all and, moving much faster than the other kids (because he wasn't shambling like zombies) he entered the building, aware that a voice was calling for him.

"Hey! Hey Kenny!" Cried Butters, dashing through the crowd of bodies and grabbing the orange parka kid's arm.

"Yes?" He replied, twitching slightly and pulling free from Butters.

"Erm, well, gee, er... Are you okay?"

He stared at Butters for a moment.

"...Yes? Had a bit of an odd nights sleep, but other than that, I'm okay. Why?"

Butters glanced around at the shambling kids. They were pushing on doors and tugging on lockers, but with no real desire to grab anything out of them. They just froze on the spot and didn't let go, or fell to the floor.

He whispered; "Do you think something odd is going on?"

Kenny shrugged; "I see a bunch of kids who maybe didn't get a lot of sleep? Was something on TV last night, I'm not sure, but whatever it was it's probably knocked Stan and Kyle out for the day. Maybe they had another adventure?"

They hadn't been including him as much in there adventures lately, especially when they involved other groups, whilst Cartman seemed to be more of a hindrance than an actual ally during some of the escapades they got up to as a group. Kenny had had his share of adventures, but since taking the name Mysterion and taking his double life, he had opted to help the boys as much as he could if they ever needed him.

Even if it cost him his life. Again.

"Gee, I dunno Kenny, I haven't heard from Stan, Kyle or Eric since the weekend began... But I have been..."

Butters trailed off, probably for too long as Kenny had marched on ahead, past the unconscious kids who surrounded him and then pushed open the door to his classroom. The bell hadn't gone yet and when it did, it dinged once and then never made another sound.

The class only had a few students inside it- all of them resting on there desks-, with Mr Garrison absent, and whilst this was normally an excuse for super awesome crazy times, the room stayed silent of any learning experiences the entire morning period. Butters kept trying to talk to Kenny, but he was ignored, until finally the bell went again only this time it was like a whistle.

First break.

The playground was completely dead and the outside was dark, not night time, but the kind of dark it sometimes got during winter when the world seemed grey and no lights had been turned on.

Except there were no clouds and the sun was just a haze.

"Kenny, please, we have to talk about this because we seem to be the only one's _not_ affected!"

"Affected by what? You keep trying to make it seem like this is some kind of pandemic or something and it's probably just what I said, people did something last night during one of the guys' adventures, something that exhausted them, and then tomorrow everything will be back to normal. Just like every other day."

But Butters reached out and grabbed his parka this time and said in a harsh tone; "But it's not just the people, I'm certain of it."

Kenny rolled his eyes.

"Animals, the weather, everything! It seems to be losing... energy. It seems to be finding everything too much, like it's giving up."

"You sound a bit paranoid," and then seeing a figure across the playground, Kenny yanked himself away from Butters and added; "Look, that kid over there is fine as well."

He marched his way across the playground, confident and certain until he saw that the kid was one of the Goth Kid's who frequently hung around the back of the school, smoking and being generally Gothic, but it was something.

Heck, anything was better than talking to Butters at this point.

But props to the kid, he kept trying...

"But Kenny-"

"TRUST me Butters!" He roared back, losing patience; "Nothing is wrong with the "everything"!"

He turned quickly to hammer this point across, when Butters kicked a ball at him. The kick was hard and the rubber ball would have, at the distance between them, probably gone flying through the air and smashed him in the face.

Instead, however, when Butters' foot collided with the ball and Kenny's arms went to protect his face, instead the ball shattered like glass and fell to the ground with several clangs, now in many pieces.

From where he was, Red saw this and immediately ran over, but when he reached the others instead of inquiring about the noise and the glass at Butters' feet, he instead held his hand out to Kenny.

"Got a lighter?"

Kenny didn't reply, instead he walked over to the remains of the ball and picked a few of them up.

"...Rubber..." He whispered.

"Dude, a lighter? Mine is new but the flame is tiny and keeps going out..."

He tried showing the other two boys, but they were to busy looking at the remains of the ball, causing Red to mutter; "Uh... Conformists."

But Kenny grabbed his arm, much to the Goth's surprise, and asked Butters quickly; "Wait, how is that possible? The ball is rubber but it smashed like glass- care to explain?"

"It's not just this, it's everything!"

"Hey... I second his question," Said Red; "Care to explain?"

Butters pointed around them frantically;

"It's like everything has lost the will to do the most basic things. The wind can't be bothered to blow, the sun has lost inspiration to burn, people can barely do the most minor things or they get tired, and then there are things like this ball which just fall apart when someone tries to use them, or the bus doors which creaked as they opened."

Suddenly he pulled from his pocket a small knife and, without hesitation, leapt forward and stabbed it straight into Kenny's chest- and for a moment the kid panicked and wondered what would happen the next time, would he just wake up in bed and the world would be the same?- but he didn't die and Butters pulled the small knife away and threw it to the floor.

The blade itself had turned to dust as soon as it had hit Kenny's parka.

"Everyone is affected." He said calmly after that, then brushed down his friends clothes and said with a small Butters like smile; "Sorry about that Kenny, especially if I scared you, gee whiz."

"I'm still confused," Whispered Red, pulling free from Kenny and muttering; "This is, like, my ideal day. Everyone is so dark and lost, like how I feel all the time, and suddenly you are saying some big event is causing everyone to feel like this?"

Butters bit his lip and nodded. Sorry to say, but this was true.

"So why are we not affected?" Asked Kenny suddenly, pointing at the three of them; "What makes us so special?"

"I tried to research online to see if anyone else was like us," Butters explained; "But my internet was running slowly and then it just died altogether."

"Crap."

Kenny sighed and looked up at the sky. Sure enough, everything did seem a bit... off today, but it wasn't some big epidemic, he could tell. The world had changed _inside_, maybe even all of reality itself.

So why were they immune? There was nothing special about him and Red, although maybe Red had been sparred because he thrived in this sort of environment, but Butters...? Butters seemed to know a lot, straight away, so...

"What do you know Butters?" Asked Kenny finally as Red tried his lighter once again, finally managing to make a spark hit his cigarette at the right spot and took a deep inhale of nicotine- and then frowned.

It was bland.

Butters however just starred into space for a moment and then slowly nodded and said softly, over the sound of a world that was now silent;

"I received a message in my dreams, a few days ago, from Imaginationland."

At the sound of the word, Kenny remembered the brief moment he had stood inside that realm, but before he could voice his alarm Butters continued;

"Something has infected the heart of Imaginationland and the effects are causing the world out here to lose inspiration, to lose strength in belief, to lose the imagination and the drive to do things for the good of others."

"But how do you know this?" Cried Kenny, adding; "And where do we come in?"

Butters just repeated his earlier statement however.

"It all started," He said calmly; "With a Key and a Dream."

* * *

To Be Continued~ :D

And lo the first chapter of this Multi-Chapter epic begins and oh dear the world isn't looking all that pleasant with stuff shattering and people just laying down in the middle of nowhere. Who can save us!

Well, three boys from South Park, that's who!

Next time we get a glimpse of the past with Butters and how he understands what is going on, and then a bit of a backstory with Red and how he came to school and was all alone!

Please Read and Review and enjoy you lovely peoples!


End file.
